Jesus is always coming - for battle?

Because Christmas is the Monday after the 4th Sunday of Advent this year - meaning that there really IS no "fourth week of Advent," St. Lucy marks the halfway point. Yes. Advent is half over.That's hard on those of us who failed to take advantage of the week between Thanksgiving and Advent this year..."Advent" comes from the Latin and means "to come to." Who is coming to whom? HE is coming to US. Jesus is coming. This time of "joyful preparation" is when we prepare for HIM to come to US; we consider the impact of His first coming and consider whether we are living for His final coming in glory.But there is an intermediate "coming" between those two. Right now, in the "age of the Church," Jesus is always coming to us, always calling to us. He is calling us to discipleship, and He is coming to empower us to share in His mission.How can we prepare for this? What exactly are we preparing for?Well, we are preparing for an ENCOUNTER. Catholicism is not a religion of laws and rules and "salvation" (though it will save you!). Catholicism is a religion of ENCOUNTER, RELATIONSHIP, AND UNION. This is what holiness means: union with God. And God Himself is the one desiring and preparing us for this encounter.This is remarkable.The King of kings and Lord of lords, the One IN whom and THROUGH whom and FOR whom all things were created, the One who IS before all else that is, in Whom we live and move and have our being, comes to us.The Wisdom of Solomon says:

For while gentle silence enveloped all things, and night in its swift course was now half gone,

thy all-powerful word leaped from heaven,from the royal throne, into the midst of the land that was doomed, 

a stern warrior carrying the sharp sword of thy authentic command.

Luke tells the same story in a different way. He says that Joseph and Mary went to Bethlehem, and while they were there she gave birth to her first-born son and wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger. This is the warrior, the One who comes to do battle.

What is He battling? Not us. We live in the land that was doomed, but He is not battling us. He is battling evil FOR us, to save us, to free us.He comes for us.He comes to us, for us.Let us prepare a place in our hearts and minds and lives to receive Him fully.